Disaster Report 4 - A Disaster in the Making

 We all have games we wish we could’ve played, I’m still salty about Prey 2. The feeling of anticipating a title for months or even years only to have it never release stings for both players and developers. For the devs that’s years of work and effort that’ll never come to fruition and be enjoyed. For players, the feeling of being robbed of an experience you once anticipated leaves many to wonder “what if?’  filling in the blanks of a game never to be, imagining it to be a masterpiece taken away from us. Star Wars 1313, Scalebound, and the aforementioned Prey 2 are just a few examples. When a game is canceled, that’s it, game over; possibly the IP may be put to use elsewhere, but that game initially promised never hits store shelves.

Apart from one time it did…

The Disaster Report series traces its roots back to the PlayStation 2, developed by Irem and released in North America in 2003, it followed a reporter on an artificial island slowly collapsing due to earthquakes. The player must escape the island avoiding hazards, meeting up and aiding other survivors, and uncovering a larger sinister plot. The initial outing was successful enough to spawn a franchise, Disaster Report 2 (Raw Danger! In the west) in 2006, and the PSP Japan exclusive Disaster Report 3 in 2009. The fourth title was in development for the PlayStation 3, scheduled to release in 2011; however, an unfortunate real world disaster halted plans.

On March 11th, 2011, Japan suffered the largest earthquake ever recorded at 9.1 magnitudes, resulting in the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant, loss of life, and billions worth of damage. Initially, Disaster Report 4 was intended to release the day prior but was delayed to Spring 2011. This was the largest natural disaster in the nation’s history; releasing a game which dealt with the very same topics at the time would be beyond insensitive. Other games were also affected, such as Motorstorm Apocalypse which also dealt with natural disasters, never saw release in Japan and was delayed in both North America and Europe. Three days after the incident, Disaster Report 4 was officially canceled.

Seven years later, in 2018 Disaster Report 4 saw release on November 22, 2018, sporting a new subtitle, “Summer Memories” and a new developer, Granzella, a phoenix formed from the ashes of Irem. Two more years after that, NIS America would release their English localization in the West to absolutely no fanfare. Sales in Japan didn’t even crack 50,000 units; why is that? It was a game lost to circumstances beyond anyone's control, rose from its grave, yet no one cared.

Here’s why, Disaster Report 4 is not groundbreaking; when we think of canceled games, we imagine them as lost masterpieces which would’ve shifted the gaming landscape, but Disaster Report 4 may as well have remained canceled. It’s an objectively bad video game which feels out of place in all aspects in the current landscape; yet when I played, it became one of my favorite games of the year and has lived rent free in my head ever since. It’s not “so bad it’s good”, it’s genuinely good, but by all objective measurements, it isn’t.

Let me explain...

The experience Granzella delivers triumphs any and all mechanical or technical shortcomings you’ll encounter. You start the game in a fairly basic character creator before being put into the intro cutscene where you decide on your characters’ backstory. This is your introduction to the game’s choice system, and you’ll be making a lot of choices throughout the game. But “how do the choices affect the narrative?” they don’t, not really. Despite giving you wide areas to explore and multiple dialogue choices, Disaster Report 4 is a linear game, which is its greatest strength.

With Disaster Report 4, the emphasis is on the journey not the destination. After choosing your character’s backstory the game begins with the player on a bus journey when disaster strikes, causing the bus to turn over due to an earthquake; after the player escapes, you’re let loose into the first area, and this is where the game lets you be whoever you want to be.

A leader or a follower, compassionate or cunning, these are the choices presented to you in the game’s many, many dialogue options. The game focuses on the human drama of disasters, life has been disrupted and broken by a natural disaster, yet life goes on. You can mock people for their actions, be a sarcastic self-centered jerk, or lend an ear and sympathize with those around you. Throughout the game you’ll encounter various characters including an anxious schoolteacher trying her best to guide her students through the turmoil, a group of bullies who see the destruction of their city as nothing more than a minor inconvenience, lovers torn apart wishing for each other's safety, shop owners exploiting people in their time of need, and you’ll even get to run a cult. Some individuals you’ll encounter over the course of the game, such as the aforementioned teacher and a shady looking Yakuza type searching for someone you aid early on. Each encounter can be as serious or as comical as you like, one part due to the amount of various clothes and costumes you can wear a la Dead Rising turning heartfelt moments into a challenge between holding back both tears and laughter; and in part by the plentiful dialogue options the game provides you.

The threat of danger is always on the back of your mind, frequent aftershocks cause buildings to collapse; the debris can injure and kill your character. The gameplay loop is a cycle of talk to people, find item or person, move to the next area; yet it never feels repetitive or boring due to the care put into each individual character story.

You make companions along the way, who follow you through your journey, all likable with their own motivations. Progressing through flooded towns, destroyed neighborhoods, and Shibuya itself; The chaos and destruction is juxtaposed by the individuals who make up each area, such as townsfolk more interested in a robbery which occurred pre-disaster or a doomsday cult living the highlife amidst the destruction. The stories and individual narratives string you along, making the most of the simplistic game mechanics, because Disaster Report 4 doesn’t need to be complicated.

There are issues with the game design, yes, you will need a guide to complete it, the game just expects you to know things. Despite giving a plethora of dialogue options in some scenarios, only particular ones progress the story. You can’t acquire items before you need them which results in backtracking and the locations of said items can be bizarre. But again, you do it because you grow attached to the world and characters. It’s janky but has more than enough soul and charm to make up for it.

Disaster Report 4, walk up to a random person and profess your undying love, reunite families, run a cult, don’t die.